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Heresy

The quickest way to be discovered as a fake is to lack personality. Too many false psychopaths try to fit in by appearing to be prototypical. They attempt to win legitimacy through descriptions of lurid dreams and deeds without offering anything of what makes them, “them”. They are walking caricatures, devoid of individuality and sanity. They distort their cartoonish dimensions until they feel that others recognize them for what they must be: psychopaths. In reality they are not, however, and the trained eye can weed them out so quickly. Ultimately the reason they think that they can pull the wool over our eyes is because they believe it to be heresy to be an individual, non-prototypical and true.

Part of the reason I believe this narrative is held by so many (ignoring the reasons why they would want to fake psychopathy) is that there is a dearth of information on the uniqueness of psychopaths. When all studies are taken from prison populations and only criminality is really studied, it is difficult to determine what a successful psychopath looks like. The narrative becomes that only heretics (that is, false psychopaths) would have personalities or fail to exhibit each facet of the condition in a dire way.

In the past, I would often refer to the possibility that my therapist got the confirmation wrong: that I’m not necessarily psychopathic. I would do this out of my own uncertainty as to whether I can exhibit the features I do and still have the inconsistencies and paradoxes that rule my life. I’m more comfortable with this fact these days, though it is unnerving to know that my therapist and I are effectively trailblazers when it comes to the condition. Our work will never be known outside of this blog and my book, but the point I wish to make is that it is acceptable to be contradictory. All of this reminds me of the old adage in the transgender community: you can tell who is freshly transitioned by the lack of skin they are showing. Similarly, you can tell who isn’t psychopathic by the lack of personality that they show. It’s okay to be a heretic. It is not acceptable to be a caricature.